"I
have not experienced anything like that, so it was so frightening."

Naoki
Hirata, of the University of Tokyo's earthquake research centre,
said: "This was a very big quake... the shaking was felt over a
broad area... fortunately, because it was deep, there is little
danger of a tsunami."

Japan
is one of the world's most seismically active nations.

In
March 2011, a massive 9.0 magnitude quake started a tsunami that left
nearly 20,000 people dead in north-eastern Japan and caused nuclear
meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

Earthquake
measuring 8.5 magnitude shakes most of Japan

No
reports of deaths or major damage after strong quake strikes deep
beneath Earth’s surface off the Ogasawara islands

A
powerful 8.5 magnitude earthquake struck near remote Japanese islands
and shook most of the country on Saturday evening local time,
although it occurred well beneath the earth’s surface and did not
trigger a tsunami warning. Several people suffered
non-life-threatening injuries, and there were no reports of deaths or
major damage.

The
quake struck off the Ogasawara islands at a depth of 370 miles (590
km), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The
quake was powerful enough to rattle most of Japan, from the southern
islands of Okinawa to Hokkaido in the north. It caused buildings to
sway in Tokyo about 620 miles north of the Ogasawara islands and
temporarily disrupted some train services in the city. About 400
houses in Saitama prefecture, just north of the capital, were without
power, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company.

On
Sunday morning, a second earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck off
Japan’s Izu islands, which are north of the Ogasawara islands, the
US Geological Survey said. It struck at a depth of eight miles with
its epicenter 390 miles south-east of Tokyo.

The
earthquake was not strong enough to generate a tsunami warning or
close enough to the islands to cause any significant damage or
injuries, said John Bellini, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden,
Colorado. He said it was considered a separate seismic event and not
an aftershock to the magnitude 8.5 quake that had struck hours
earlier.

Have
you ever wished there was more talk of climate change in national
politics? Have you ever sat through a dull, paint-by-numbers
political debate and secretly wished for an over-the-top, maybe even
kind of loopy person to show up and take the whole conversation
off-script?

If
so, then prepare to get excited about the very strange U.S. Senate
campaign of California’s Mike Beitiks.

Barbara
Boxer’s decision to step down from her Senate seat in 2016 has
brought a host of potential contenders for her seat. (California
Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta
Sanchez are believed to be the current frontrunners.) But only one
candidate, Beitiks, promises to talk about absolutely nothing but
climate change. His campaign photos have captions like, “We’re
literally going to die” and “Why aren’t we all screaming?”

I
run for Senate on a narrow platform. It’s more of a single board,
really. If elected, I promise to monomaniacally create and
support legislation that combats climate change.

This
is not some sort of henny-penny scheme. It’s about realistic
assessment and hard work.

Literally
nothing else will influence my decision-making and my political
dealing. I will use the power of the law to brutalize the most brutal
climate offenders and smack some sense into all of us.

It
will be a rough job, no doubt, but it can’t be that much
rougher than going about my business like an ignorant sham of a man,
willfully blind to the fact that my kids will come of age in an
apocalyptic wasteland of our own making.

I
will be the first to admit that I’m not a perfect candidate. I’m
barely qualified, and a survey of my personal history will
undoubtedly expose me as an embarrassment to myself in almost every
regard that does not include this singular act of rationality.

That
last bit doesn’t seem to be quite true. Beitiks may be the only
Senate candidate with a topless photo of himself on his website. (I
think he’s illustrating the perils of global warming?) But he
also has
a law degree from Hastings,
a well-respected law school in San Francisco. He passed the
California bar and generally seems to be a pretty smart guy, with
a more
wide-ranging interest in public policythan
his campaign website would suggest.

That
said, his climate policy suggestions, while
creative,
are going to be a tough sell:

• Take
all of the rich people’s money, put it toward fighting climate
change. Then, take all of the poor people’s money, put that toward
fighting climate change. Basically, nobody gets money anymore until
no more climate change.

• Withdraw
military from Middle East. Deploy military in people’s driveways to
make sure they’re not taking unnecessary trips, driving when they
could be walking, etc …

• Everyone
has to breathe more shallowly.

•
Let’s
just say that if you want to have a child, you have to plant twenty
trees, too. If your kid dies you get to chop down one of the trees as
a sort of grieving ritual, but the rest stay.

Would
I vote for the guy? The trees thing does have a certain poetry to it.
At the very least, I’d like to see Beitiks make it to the debates.

I discuss how ground level flask measurements of methane have been spiking upwards over the last few years. I analyze the implications to the breakdown of climate stability, causing jet stream fracturing and weather regime change. I believe that this behaviour will rapidly worsen as Arctic temperature amplification continues, leading our planet to a much warmer and unrecognizable climate over the next 5 to 10 years.

Here are some of the anomalies Paul talks about

And this, from earlier in the week

2845
ppb methane reading at Barrow, Alaska

I
am posting this as a heads-up as the result of a one-off observation
of a 2845 ppb hourly methane reading in Barrow, Alaska.

This
is still to be confirmed but such a large reading is more than
noteworthy.

While
it is not a mean reading what comes to mind is that we had our first
readings of 400 ppm of C02 at Mount Lua about a year ago and now it
is the average.

When I looked at the graph above thought at first that the graph did not reflect the observation, but on looking a bit more carefully, there is a single reading at that level.

Watch
this space and Arctic
News for confirmation and interpretationNOTE: This has to be treated as very much an interim reading that requires confirmation.

In
the mean time while the endless debate about exactly how methane is
going to or not going cook our collective goose. It continues to rise
and rise.

A very high methane reading was recorded in Barrow, Alaska (hourly average, in situ measurement). The big danger is that the combined impact of feedbacks will accelerate warming in the Arctic to a point where huge amounts of methane will erupt abruptly from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean.

They
say they are living in fear of flooding and tumbling rock and ice
because they have witnessed cracks in the ground and in glaciers.

Some
glacial lakes have sunk underground with their outlets appearing at
new place.

With
temperatures increasing and the monsoon on the way, anxiety is
rising.

Map
showing glacial lakes in Nepal

Glacial
lakes at risk of flooding following the 25 April earthquake

Hundreds
of people from Sherpa villages fled to higher ground for safety on
Monday night after a small glacial lake burst its banks, sweeping
away two small bridges and a cowshed. It caused rumours that a major
glacial lake had flooded.

line

Sherpas
are members of an ethnic community that descended from Tibet hundreds
of years ago - they use Sherpa as their surnames

A
large number tend to be employed in helping climbers in expeditions
or guiding trekkers, while others run lodges and tea houses for
trekkers and mountaineers

line

Nepal
has more than 2,300 glacial lakes and the most feared is Imja.

Government
officials say a helicopter survey showed Imja was intact, but they
admit a ground study of the area is yet to be done.

Imja
Lake - the most feared - is intact, according to government officials

Locals
say they are relieved about Imja but uncomfortable about other
changes they have observed.

During
a field visit this week a team from Sherpa villages found ice and
debris in a place they should not have been.

"That
was a place where we used to see certain flowers bloom," said
Ang Chiri Sherpa, chairman of the Sagarmatha buffer zone users'
group.

"But
when we went to see what had happened, we saw an unusual, small
glacier-like body of ice and soil and rock debris that could
potentially fall on our village.

"We
have no idea where this potentially dangerous thing came from."

Sherpas
have said new outlets have emerged from glacial lakes

With
the summer season sending temperatures up and monsoon rains
approaching, locals say they are increasingly worried.

"Rising
temperatures mean glacier meltdown will accelerate and rains will
mean moraines [rock and sediment deposited by a glacier] could become
loose," said Tshering Sherpa, an official whose non-governmental
organisation manages Everest base camp and the climbing route to the
highest peak.

"All
these could multiply the risk of outbursts, more so because the
earthquake and continued tremors may have made the moraines of
glacial lakes already weak.

"And
then we have the recent horrifying experience of a lake breaking on
Monday, even if it was a small one."

Most
locals in the villages in the Everest region are still sleeping
outdoors for fear of aftershocks and they say the concern over
possible destabilised glacial lakes and glaciers are making them feel
worse.

Pasang
Sherpa, a lodge owner in Namche said the cries of women and children
on Monday night still ring in her ears.

Sherpas
have found visible cracks following the earthquake and subsequent
aftershocks

"We
were all holding torches and running uphill crying and shouting in
fear, it was miserable."

Scientists
say they have not seen any evidence of risks so far but they also
warn that things could change in these shaky times.

"Except
for this little event of a lake which somehow released all its waters
on Monday, there has been no evidence [of risk] as such," said
Walter Immerzeel, assistant professor of physical geography at
Ultrecht University in the Netherlands.

"But
I think it's a fair concern on the part of Sherpas [because] you have
those moraine dams which block those lakes and they can be
destabilised by earthquakes and aftershocks."

Dr
Immerzeel was in a team that recently produced research on Everest
glaciers published this week in The Cryosphere journal of the
European Geosciences Union (EGU).

"Avalanches
and earthquakes can breach the dams, causing catastrophic floods that
can result in river flows 100 times greater in the Kosi basin,"
the EGU said.

The
Kosi basin stretches from the Everest region in the north to the Kosi
river that joins the Ganges in India across the border in eastern
Nepal.

Although
the government and scientists say they have seen no immediate threat,
members of the Sherpa community argue say their focus has been
limited to the Imja glacial lake.

"So
many other glacial lakes have formed in recent years and none of them
have been studied, all they talk about is Imja," said Ang Chiri
Sherpa.

Rishiram
Sharma, head of the government agency responsible for monitoring and
taking care of the glaciers and glacial lakes in the Nepalese
Himalayas, said his office was trying to co-ordinate with other
government agencies for an urgent field study.

"We
understand the frustration of the Sherpa community and we will
conduct a ground study at the earliest," he said.

The
Sherpas from villages right below the glacial lakes and glaciers say
they have formed a committee to monitor the threat themselves.

"Our
committee will now make a dam to protect a village that was hit by
Monday's flood from a glacial lake and then we will prepare a
database of all the risky glacial lakes including those around the
Khumbu glacier," said Ang Chiri Sherpa.

"We
have heard enough of the government and foreign agencies' plans and
projects to help us."

Previous material on this. The video below is of special interestRisk of Nepal Glacial Lake Outburst

At
least 10,000 people live directly in the path of the three very
unstable glacial lakes, Imja Tsho, Thulagi and Tsho Rolpa. These
areas include the dozens of towns on the main trekking route to Mt
Everest Base Camp. These lakes are extremely vulnerable to
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) from aftershocks following the
7.8 Ricther earthquake on Saturday, 25 April 2015.

GLOFs
occur when earth structures damming large glacial lakes collapse.
Formed out of deposited rocks and mud these dams are inherently
unstable and can be ruptured by a single landslide or avalanche into
the lake. Past floods have obliterated small hydro electric
plants in their path. In 1980 a GLOF in north eastern Nepal
devastated villages over 70km downstream.

The
UN and World Bank have a number of development projects in place to
improve warning systems about GLOFs, but they have not been
adequately successful. Most towns have limited awareness of
these risks and few (if any) have evacuation plans. Due to lack
of resources many of the monitoring systems that did exist have
degraded. The glacier lakes themselves serve as major tourist
attractions, so locals’ incomes rely on remaining in endangered
areas. In fact, as visitor numbers to Mt Everest have increased
significantly over the past ten years, the local population living
the the path of the Imja glacier lake has swelled.

Local
District Disaster Relief Committees generally have very little
knowledge about climate change or GLOF risk management. There
is also insufficient coordination between different agencies for
systematic information sharing on GLOF risk management and no
efficient mechanism for communicating GLOF warnings effectively. UNDP
Report September 2012

The
natural moraine banks that form the dam for these lakes are unstable
and are vulnerable to earthquakes. This instability is
exacerbated by the fact that the volume of the glacial lakes has been
increasing due to climate change.

Government
and disaster management authorities have limited understanding and
experience of managing growing climate risks, including current
variability and the projected impacts of climate change, that are
increasing the range and magnitude of disasters that Nepal is having
to cope with UNDP Report September 2012

As
these lakes only began forming in the late 1950s, they were not a
threat when Nepal last experienced major earthquakes in the 1930s.
Given the volume of water and steep terrain, World Bank flood
models predict walls of water and debris up to 10 metres high,
even 100km from the source.
There is also a chain reaction risk where a comparably small
lake, situated above larger lake, causes a sudden surge of water that
then bursts the larger lake’s moraine dam.

Nouveau
Eco created this risk map (above) because we want people in this zone, both
local and international first responders, to be made aware of the
risks facing them so that they can take steps to prevent further
disaster in this already devastated region.

This same problem was identified in this excellent documentary

Nepal
- I Have Seen the Earth Change

Solukhumbu
is one of the 75 districts in Nepal. It gathers most of the 3300
glaciers and 2300 artic lakes of the country. Inhabitants witness
huge climatic changes in the Everest area. The most striking being
the fast glacier recession, which have given birth to new lakes where
there was only ice and snow. Those lakes are a danger for the
population, natural bombs, ready to explode. If the water overflows,
it will sweep away inhabitants, bridges, houses and villages.

Not
only that, but this

Monsoon
rains increase risks of landslides in Nepal

Nepal
needs to act quickly to reduce the destruction of landslides in
earthquake-affected areas before the monsoon rains arrive, warn
scientists

Nepal
needs to urgently assess the risks from existing and potential
landslides in earthquake affected areas before the monsoon rains
come, say scientists who have produced a detailed map of landslide
risks using satellite data.

The report released
by scientists at the British Geological Survey, Durham University and
University of East Anglia this week says: “The need to plan
measures to mitigate landslide deaths and disruption in the
forthcoming monsoon season must remain a priority. Many more damaging
landslides may occur in the 2015 monsoon, likely to start in late
June, than would be expected if a major earthquake had not occurred.”

The
scientistsidentified at
least six major landslides blocking valleys in areas hit by the 7.8
magnitude earthquake on 25 April. But the team says more major
landslides may be found as more satellite imagery becomes available
(large areas of the region are still obscured by cloud and
dust).

The
risks of landslides will “escalate significantly” as the monsoon
rains begin, the report added. The monsoon that reaches Nepal in
second week of June and withdraws in September brings almost 80% of
the country’s total annual rainfall.

Major
landslides are limited to a zone that runs east-west almost parallel
to the transition between the lesser and High Himalaya near the
China-Nepal border.

This zone includes parts of the most affected
districts –Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchwok,
Dolakha, Ramechhap and Kavre, where most of the fatalities due to the
earthquake occurred. Major roads to Tibet in the
north and India in the south have also been blocked.

A
team led by the University of Michigan geomorphologist Marin Clark
has also identified tens of thousands of locations at risk of
mudslides and landslides in the mountainous area along the
Nepal-Tibet border, north of Kathmandu and west of Mount Everest.

Image
credit: Dam Hazard ~ University of Michigan

According
to satellite images, avalanches and landslides have blocked the upper
reaches of Buri Gandhaki river in Gorkha district, the Trishuli
river near Thansing and the Sunkoshi river near
Sarsunkharka.

But
this information is not reaching local people. “The district
administration has not informed us about the river blockages. People
are more concerned about procuring plastic sheets right now,” Kapil
Koirala, a resident of Dhulikhel, which lies on the Arniko highway to
Tibet, told thethirdpole.net.
People are scared about the floods and want to move to safer
districts but they don’t know which places are safer, he said.

“The
cloud cover has made it difficult for us to get accurate satellite
pictures and travelling to the areas where landslides have occurred
is not possible right now,” said Narendra Raj Khanal of
ICIMOD. “I have asked for water discharge data and once I have
this I will be in a better position to say how serious the river
blockages could be,” he said.

In
2014 flash floods in Sindhupalchowk district on the Nepal-China
border killed 156 people, after a massive
landslide blockedthe
Sunkoshi River